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Title: The Program by Stephen White, Sandra Burr ISBN: 1-58788-656-1 Publisher: Brilliance Audio Pub. Date: January, 2002 Format: Audio Cassette Volumes: 4 List Price(USD): $12.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.2 (46 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Another 5 * s for Stephen White
Comment: Assistant DA Kirsten Lord is on the run along with her eight year old daughter. After Ernesto Castro,s drug dealing conviction, he threatens her saying, "For everything I lose, you will lose twice." When Kirsten's husband is shot down by a professional hit man in front of her, she and Amy change their names and leave town thinking they can relocate with the support of friends in her state but without any real protection. When Amy is nearly kidnapped, she asks for help from the Federal Witness Security Program (WITSEC)
The story line continues to develop as the reader learns that Kirsten has been a vocal and successful critic of the program and there are many federal agents who do not think she deserves their protection whatever the danger to her and her child. As she joins the program and is relocated to Boulder, Colorado, she requests the help of a psychologist to help her deal with all the trauma that she is dealing with. The psychologist is Dr. Alan Gregory, and old friend from Stephen White's previous books.
Dr. Gregory is also treating a second member of the WITSEC program...a mob hit man named Carl Luppo. Carl and Kirsten meet as the suspense grows and Kirsten realizes that she knows someone wants to kill her, but that she cannot determine by herself if it is Ernesto Castro, someone within the WITSEC program, or a third party from an old case that she had prosecuted. The book is worth reading to find out who all the characters are and whether or not they are the bad guys with the intent to kill.
Incidentally Dr. Gregory's wife, Laura, an Assistant DA herself, gets involved with helping solve the mystery even though she is nearly ready to have the baby that she and Alan were waiting for in an earlier book. The old neighbor Adreinne is still next door as well even though she plays only a very minor role. The book is a page turner worth reading and Stephen White is an author I will look for again.
Rating: 5
Summary: Better and better
Comment: I like Stephen White's books (and have read them all) for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that he's not afraid to shift the focus away from psychologist Alan Gregory and his now-wife, prosecutor Lauren Crowder. To compare him to Jonathan Kellerman (as Doubleday does on the flap copy-something Doubleday just loves to do, as if comparison is a huge selling point rather than a risk of turning readers away) is to do White a great disservice. White never, as Kellerman always does, inflicts himself on the material. (One can almost hear Kellerman exclaiming from the pages, "Aren't I clever?" Well, no, actually.) Aside from brief mentions now and then of discredited syndromes (like repressed/recovered memories) he doesn't actually travel down the potentially hazardous road of bad therapy. Instead, he allows the characters to remain in character. And fine characters they are, too! In The Program, not only is the story original and clever, but also he's created in retired hitman, witness-protected, Carl Luppo, one of the most original and well-conceived people I've read about recently.
What I also like about White is his plotting skill. Each book seems to get just that much tighter, that much leaner, that much more labyrinthine. And the different "voices" in this book have genuine authenticity, particularly the exchanges between what, for want of a better term might be called, the "contract arranger" and his sundry hitmen/women. No overly technical whiz-bang stuff, just meat-and-potatoes serious business.
Kirsten Lord's (the prosecutor in witness protection) whale motif is a tad peculiar, but since the woman never for a moment goes out of character, who's to say it isn't valid? Certainly her concern for her daughter, and her grief over the murder of her husband, ring very true. Maybe people start thinking about whales when they're threatened with the loss of everything they value.
Finally, any writer who can endow two dogs with such character that the readers can actually see them, is a writer to be reckoned with. I highly recommend all White's books. They're never less than very good. The man really does get better and better and, in large part, I think it's as a result of his willingness sometimes to let his two central characters play secondary roles.
Rating: 4
Summary: Good read but choppy plot
Comment: Characters in this book were interesting. Especially Carl!
The whole whale thread was very annoying and didn't mesh throughout the book. The best thing about S. White's books is he always has a fresh plotline and his writing is sharply drawn. He gives the characters humanity and humor and makes them leap off the pages. A good read but not his best.
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Title: Warning Signs by Stephen White ISBN: 0440237416 Publisher: Dell Pub. Date: 01 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Manner of Death by Stephen White ISBN: 0451197038 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: January, 2000 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: Cold Case by Stephen White ISBN: 0451201558 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: 06 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Critical Conditions by Stephen White ISBN: 0451191706 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: January, 1999 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Remote Control by Stephen White ISBN: 0451191692 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: March, 1998 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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